2025 Bahrain GP talking points: Oscar Piastri’s championship statement, Red Bull in crisis, George Russell’s heroics and more

Following a pretty dull weekend in Japan, F1 fans were hopeful that the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix would serve up an exciting show, with more opportunities for overtaking and a wider variety of tyre strategies. 

Thankfully, Bahrain did not disappoint - with frequent battles up and down the grid, and a safety car restart only adding more drama to what was already a more interesting race than Japan after just the opening few laps. 

Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles takes a look at the biggest talking points to come out of a thrilling Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, April 13. 

Oscar Piastri is the championship favourite, not Lando Norris

With one win apiece this season for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, momentum in the Drivers’ championship was bound to swing in the favour of one of the McLaren racers at Bahrain, where they had already blown rivals away in pre-season testing earlier this year. 

And it was Piastri who took his chance, putting his MCL39 on pole position in Saturday’s qualifying, while his team-mate Norris’ mistake in turn one condemned him to just P6 on the grid for Sunday. 

After qualifying, Norris was visibly disappointed in himself, simply telling Sky Sports “I’m just not quick enough.”

Piastri, in stark comparison, explained that he felt “comfortable all weekend,” and could not thank his team enough for the car that had taken him to the very front of the grid. 

On Sunday, while Norris did impressively make up three positions in the first lap, he received a five-second stop-and-go penalty for failing to line up on his grid box correctly prior to the race start. 

Later on, during a safety car restart, Norris battled with the Ferraris for P3, but was ordered to give up P4 to Lewis Hamilton after passing him off the track. 

After regaining the position legally from Hamilton, P2 was very much on for the 25-year-old, with Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell not far down the road. 

Norris, however, made tough work of overtaking Leclerc, locking up heavily on Lap 46, before taking the last podium spot from the Monegasque with just five laps to go of the 57-lap race. 

The McLaren driver nonetheless set after Russell in P2, but could not get the move done despite a dramatic last-lap scrap with his fellow Briton. 

While a recovery to P3 from P6 is no mean feat, it was what Norris himself called a ‘messy race,’ ruing too many mistakes and admitting that he is ‘not clicking’ with the car in quite the same way as last year.

Meanwhile, his team-mate Piastri was barely seen throughout the race, as he smoothly converted his pole position into a commanding, incident-free victory - much like his win at Shanghai in Round Two. 

The win saw the Aussie become the first repeat winner of the 2025 season, finishing a startling fifteen seconds ahead of the chasing pack - the biggest winning margin of the year so far. 

As Piastri’s race engineer, Tom Stallard said it was a ‘pretty flawless’ weekend from the 24-year-old, who has already out-qualified Norris three times this year - having done so on only four occasions in 2024 - as well as having equalled his own win tally from last season. 

With much of the criticism levelled at Norris usually based on a certain fallibility when the pressure ramps up, Piastri has been dominant and clinical  - with two champion-worthy drives in 2025 placing him just three points behind his championship-leading team-mate.

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Red Bull are in crisis

“Everything went wrong that could go wrong,” were the words of Max Verstappen following a tough Sunday for Red Bull that saw him finish just P6, with new team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in P9. 

Having qualified P7, Verstappen struggled throughout the Grand Prix, complaining particularly when on the Hard tyres of a lack of grip.

He also experienced severe braking issues - telling his race engineer GP Lambiase, “I can’t even brake anymore, it’s just ridiculous.”

Two error-filled pit stops only added to Verstappen’s problems, the first taking 4.7s due to Red Bull’s traffic light system failing to give the Dutchman the go-ahead after his tyres had been changed - a problem Tsunoda also faced just a minute later. 

The second stop was even worse - a stubborn front-right tyre saw Verstappen stationary for an excruciating 6.2s. 

While they ought to be encouraged by Tsunoda’s performances throughout the weekend - getting the second car into Q3 for the first time this season and securing the team’s first double points finish - the lack of overall performance has Red Bull seriously concerned.

So much so that key figures within Red Bull’s management held a crisis meeting after Sunday’s race, with attendees including Team Principal Christian Horner, Advisor Helmut Marko, Technical Director Pierre Wache, and Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan. 

After the talks, Marko told Autosport that the Bahrain performance was ‘very alarming.’ 

“We know that we are not competitive and there will be parts coming in the coming races and hopefully they bring improvement,” Marko said. 

As well as critical problems with the car, Marko also told Sky Germany about his ‘great concern’ over Verstappen’s future with the team - saying Red Bull have to ‘create a basis with a car so that he can fight for the world championship.’

Marko’s comments come after telling BBC Sport earlier this month that Verstappen has a ‘performance clause’ in his contract that could allow him to leave earlier than expected in 2028. 

The exact details of the clause are not publicly known, but BBC Sport say it stipulates that Red Bull have to provide Verstappen with a race-winning car, while MailSport claim he could activate the clause in the summer if he is below third in the Drivers’ championship. 

After Bahrain, that is where the four-time world champion currently sits.

With not only McLaren, but Mercedes and possibly now Ferrari ahead of Red Bull in the development battle, Verstappen faces an uphill battle to keep his title hopes alive.

George Russell’s ‘unbelievable drive’ 

Thanks to McLaren’s dominance and Verstappen’s heroics in Suzuka, it has mostly gone under the radar just how good of a start Mercedes’ George Russell has had to the season.

Coming into Bahrain, Russell had finished in the top five in every race across the opening three rounds, including the Sprint in Shanghai, having also scored points in his last 13 races. 

At Sakhir on Sunday, Russell secured his best result of 2025, finishing P2 despite a late charge from Norris in the pacier McLaren.

And while some of his stellar 2025 performances may have, at times, appeared seamless, Bahrain was anything but easy for Russell.

He described his latter stint as ‘exceptionally difficult’ as he battled technical gremlins all the way to the chequered flag. 

Having already been sent out to defend P2 on Soft tyres for the remaining 22 laps after the safety car restart - a strategy Russell described as ‘audacious’ - the 27-year-old also had to deal with an electrical issue that was causing ‘all sorts of failures.’ 

The glitches were causing problems for Russell’s brake-by-wire system, which he was forced to reset on each lap - on one occasion, he even pressed his radio button only for his DRS flap to open when it was not meant to.

The Silver Arrows driver escaped a penalty for the DRS error not only due to the exceptional circumstances that led to it but also because he slowed down at the next corner to give back the gains it had momentarily given him. 

And while all of this was happening, Norris was closing in on the Mercedes man - who expertly defended his position through Sakhir’s opening corners on the last lap and held on to the very end. 

Given all of his problems, it came as no surprise to hear Russell say he was ‘pretty pleased’ to see the chequered flag, while his Team Principal Toto Wolff once again heaped praise on the Briton.

“The brake-by-wire failed suddenly, and then it took a while to find the settings to kind of reset it,” Wolff explained.

“But we did that, and then, to be honest, him managing the system, coming in and out while Norris was behind him…it's just an unbelievable drive, to be honest.”

The latest result leaves Russell P4 in the Drivers’ championship, just six points off the struggling Verstappen in third and 14 points off leader Norris. 

Between a strong P2 qualifying result on Saturday and so impressively holding onto it on Sunday, the Briton has shown that he can certainly compete at the very front and snatch big results if frontrunners McLaren have an off-day.

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Haas recover brilliantly, while Williams crumble

Following a dismal qualifying performance, in which Oliver - Ollie - Bearman finished dead last and Esteban Ocon crashed out in Q2, things were looking rather bleak for Haas come Sunday. 

Remarkably, however, despite Ocon and Ollie Bearman starting in P15 and P20, respectively, the American team surged back up the grid to score their second double-points finish of the season.

Bearman’s performance caught the eye yet again, making up five positions on the opening lap and advancing through the midfield.

A daring overtake on Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar on the outside of turn four was an impressive highlight in his charge to the points. 

The safety car was convenient for the young Brit, but he did well to manage his Soft tyres and keep his fellow rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli at bay in P10, securing his third points finish in four races this season. 

Ocon similarly benefitted from the safety car with a P8 finish, another important turnaround given his qualifying woes, and one that currently has Haas flying high in the Constructors’ championship in fifth. 

Haas are now a point ahead of Williams, whose weekend ended up going in the complete opposite direction to their midfield competitors. 

Things looked so promising for the Grove team prior to Sunday’s race - Carlos Sainz qualified strongly in P8, while team-mate Alex Albon proved more than quick enough to get into the points despite his P15 qualifying result. 

The Thai driver was robbed of the opportunity to get a run in the second part of qualifying due to a delayed penalty from the FIA for Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, and almost certainly would have been closer to his team-mate for the start of the Grand Prix. 

During the race itself, both drivers showed good pace, although Sainz’s Soft tyres did not take long to drop off as he battled hard against the quicker cars of Verstappen and Hamilton.

On Lap 30, in a battle with Yuki Tsunoda for P6, Sainz suffered damage to his sidepod, and while he tried to fight on for a few more laps, the Spaniard was forced to retire - meaning he still only has one point to his name in 2025.

Meanwhile, Albon recovered well to get into the points positions but lost significant ground under the safety car as Williams opted to pit both drivers at the same time, leaving him in P12 and with just too much work to do. 

Despite failing to score points for the first time this season, Albon said he was ‘still generally happy’ with his performance throughout the weekend, with a lot of lessons to carry forward for the rest of the year. 

Sainz also expressed a belief that Williams are ‘on the right track’, but after giving up P5 in the Constructors’ to Haas, the Grove team will certainly hope to bounce right back in Saudi Arabia this weekend. 

Alpine score points at last 

Without a doubt, the big surprise to come out of the Bahrain weekend was the pace on display from Alpine, particularly after Pierre Gasly qualified P4 on Saturday. 

Like Albon, Gasly suffered a significant loss of time in the race thanks to the safety car but remained in the fight for big points until the end of the Grand Prix. 

For the remaining 22 laps after the restart, the Frenchman, in P6, had to keep former Red Bull team-mate Verstappen behind and was so close to pulling it off - only to lose out to the Dutchman on the dramatic final lap. 

Despite his frustration with that last lap, Gasly was not only ‘very happy’ to pick up Alpine’s first points of 2025 but also with how competitive they were after a difficult weekend in Japan.

“I think it just shows how good of a weekend we had when we are fighting these guys,” Gasly said.

“Looking at last week, we were struggling a lot, couldn’t make it to the points, Max [Verstappen] was winning, and this weekend we actually were competitive and fighting him until the last lap.”

The former Red Bull driver is also hopeful that the uptick in performance can be reproduced on other circuits across the season.

However, he admitted that some work is needed to understand where exactly the pace in Bahrain came from.

After qualifying in P11, a first ever points-finish in F1 for team-mate Jack Doohan also looked like a real possibility throughout the Grand Prix, but after the safety car, he dropped back from P9, staying out on the hard tyre while those around him pitted for fresh rubber. 

The Aussie also received a five-second penalty after the race for exceeding track limits, which demoted him to a final P14 classification.  

Team Principal Oliver Oakes nonetheless said Doohan did a ‘good job’ during the weekend.

And amid early speculation around his immediate future, The Race have reported the 22-year-old now has until the middle of the season to secure his seat for the rest of the year.

Next up for F1 is the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, closing out the first of three triple headers in the 2025 season. 

Qualifying is set to start at 6pm UK time on Saturday, April 19, and the race is due on Sunday at 6pm also - all available to watch on Sky Sports F1.

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